That's the joke!

It's not funny, it's just tired and repetitious, and HN discourages joking around anyway because it leads to low quality conversations and contests over who can be funnier instead of who can contribute the most meaningfully to a conversation.

If you think a comment is inappropriate, flag it. Don't complain about it -- the guidelines ask you not to. Just flag it.

I found that guideline when looking for the 'discourage joking' guideline.

I never found the joking one, though. I don't think that it exists.

I sort of get what you mean that it's discouraged, but I don't think it's something as broad as 'joking', more like "Jokes require substance and relatability to the topic, class, and cleverness".

HN has quite a few funny people.

My larger point here is that everyone on HN knows about ad blockers and is using them if they want to be, so it's tired and repetitious to keep seeing the same smug "Well why are you even seeing ads, just use an ad blocker" comments. The ads matter, even if you aren't personally seeing them. Ads are what funds the majority of content online. Most people are still seeing them. It's reasonable to have a discussion about ads, and responses like "Just use an adblocker" are just thread derails, as we're seeing here.

It's also not 100% a joke, if you really think about what that post was saying. I'm betting most people on this site don't get the 'regular' user experience, because we are more likely to use alternate search sites and ad blockers than standard users. Honestly, had the original poster not pointed out the change in ad placements, I never would've known.

And that now has me thinking about what kind of ads people like my parents are seeing, and how that informs their worldview.

Let’s not let any humor distract from the pedants, bores and scolds doing yeoman’s work.

I think it was more of a humorously-worded suggestion.